Sign of freefall in Taiwan e-bike exports levelling out

The volume of e-bikes exported from Taiwan has been in a constant freefall since January 2023. At this point it was clear that the market was flooded and delayed shipments were reaching weak purchasing markets. Throughout 2023, the number of e-bikes shipped from Taiwan dropped each month; from 102,575 in January to 37,597 in December. The latest Q1 figures of 2024 show signs of stability being resumed in the export market, albeit at a considerably low level.

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Having peaked at over 1 million units in 2022, Taiwan’s total e-bike export in 2023 was almost back at the same level as it was in 2019: 686,556 units with an average of 57,00 units per month. In the first three months of 2024, the volume of e-bikes exported from Taiwan has been just above 30,000 units. The bulk of the exports (50-60%) are destined for EU markets.

Challenges in key markets

In a small sign of market turnaround, the volume of exports to the EU have risen for the first quarter since Q2 2022. However, with 57,366 units exported this is the lowest Q1 export volume to EU markets since 2018. In Europe, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK (not included in the total EU volume) are the leading destinations. This indicates that total exports in 2024 could be far below the 2019 ‘pre-Covid baseline figure’ as high inventories are continuing to dictate the market conditions in these countries.

E-bike exports from Taiwan to the US hiked from 58,417 units in 2018 to 271,769 units in 2021 when exports were at their peak. But this increase was only short-lived. However, in January 2024, the US was the leading destination for Taiwanese e-bike exports, but dropped back behind The Netherlands in February and March.  But, the amounts do not offer much encouragement. At 23,000 units across Q1 2024, this is the lowest volume since Q1 2019. Whereas exports got stronger throughout 2019, the preliminary exports figures for April 2024 to the US suggest that there will no short-term turnaround heading into Q2.

Export value dropping

In terms of export value this remained well above the ‘benchmark’ level of 2019 in 2023 at TW$37 billion (€1.1 billion). This level even matched the export value of 2021. Q1 2024 paints a more worrying picture. At €170 million this is the lowest quarter since Q1 2019 and indicates that more low to -mid-end e-bikes are entering the market from Taiwan. The total average price per e-bike export dropped from €1950 in Q4 2023 to €1704 in Q1 2024.